


One Day

by lirin



Category: The Lord of the Rings - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: 5+1 Things, B2MEM 2019, Canonical Character Death, Fourth Age, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-02
Updated: 2019-03-02
Packaged: 2019-11-08 00:08:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17970686
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lirin/pseuds/lirin
Summary: "If you're going to be Steward one day..."Elboron has many teachers.





	One Day

**Author's Note:**

> For G48 (Elboron as Aragorn’s Steward in the Fourth Age) on the "Stewards of Gondor" bingo card.

When Elboron turns three, the time comes for him to set aside babyish things. There is still plenty of time for play, but now he has duties as well. That evening, Papa calls him into his study and picks him up to sit in his lap, at the big desk that Papa spends so much time sitting at (sometimes too much time—Elboron has taken a nap under there a few times when Papa said he would come play in a few more minutes, but the minutes stretched on too long).

"If you're going to be Steward one day after me, you need to know how to read," Papa tells him.

"I don't want to be Steward," Elboron says. " _You're_ the Steward." At three, it seems a cogent argument. But he leans over the scroll, just like he's seen Papa do so many times, and he watches as Papa points to the letters. Tinco, tuh. Parma, puh. Calma, kuh. Quesse, kwuh.

"I think that's enough for today," Papa says after a while. "You're doing a very good job. I think we should get you some pastries from the kitchen as a reward, don't you think so?"

Elboron still doesn't think he wants to ever be Steward, but if being three means extra pastries and finally learning what all those squiggles mean on the scrolls that everybody cares about so much, then he doesn't think he minds being three.

* * *

"If you're going to be Steward one day, a long time from now, you're going to need to know how to use a sword," Mama says on Elboron's fourth birthday. She takes Elboron out into the courtyard of their house in Emyn Arnen, and hands him a stick. "Now when your enemy comes at you with a stroke from above, you block it like this."

No matter how hard Elboron tries to break through her guard, the stick never touches her. As for himself, he always ends up nursing a few bruises the next day—but as the years go on, the bruises are fewer and fewer.

Elboron doesn't score a hit on Mama until he's ten. It's a lucky blow; she was distracted by a messenger who had just ridden into the courtyard, hopefully bearing news of Papa and the war to the south. She praises him nonetheless, and that night she tells him to sit at the head of the table, in the seat that normally sits empty when Papa is away. They feast on roast boar, and Elboron isn't sure whether Mama is happier about the bruise on her hip, or about the fact that Papa is on his way home.

* * *

When Elboron is twelve, he goes the farthest he's ever been from both of his parents at the same time, when Uncle Éomer and Aunt Lothíriel invite him to spend a year with them in Rohan. Elboron's cousins are fun to play with, and they teach him a few fighting moves that he suspects even Mama might not know, and they show him how to ride without a saddle or bridle. But most of all, Elboron learns about Rohan. Its horses, its people, its rolling hills and green everywhere. Elboron doesn't think that any place can be as green and full of life as his beloved Ithilien, but of all the other places he's been, Rohan comes closest.

The month after he arrives, Uncle Éomer takes Elboron along on a journey around the kingdom. He leaves Aunt Lothíriel and the children at home, so for once they can talk in peace without Elfwine interrupting to show Elboron how he can ride backwards or upside down.

"Rohan has always been Gondor's closest ally," Uncle Éomer says. "It is good that we are now even more closely allied through marriage—though of course I am gladder still that your mother found such a well-suited marriage, and I am sure there is no one who would make me happier than Lothíriel. But when you follow in your father's footsteps someday, the Steward of Gondor will have blood of Rohan as well as of Gondor flowing in his veins. You need to make sure you have the knowledge of Rohan and the love for it to bear out your heritage, and preserve the strength of our alliance, for the health of both our nations, when my generation is gone." 

Together, they ride to almost every city and outpost in the kingdom, speaking to their lords and chieftains and meeting the common folk as well. By the end of it, Elboron thinks he can tell why his uncle loves this land so much. It's a wonderful place—though he still thinks it's not quite as beautiful as Ithilien.

* * *

Elboron has been to Minas Tirith many times in his life, but the first time he goes there without Mama or Papa is when he is almost fifteen. His parents have decided he is old enough that rather than send for a tutor to come live in Emyn Arnen, they will send Elboron to live in the capital and study under the same tutors as the son and daughter of the king.

Elboron studies alongside Eldarion, mostly. They've played together before, exploring the city and getting into mischief whenever Elboron's parents brought him to visit, but that was all fun. Eldarion is as serious in his studies as he is mischievous outside of them, and Elboron dives into study right alongside him. He's learning Quenya now, but he starts learning one of the tongues of Near Harad as well, from a Southron who has come to live in Minas Tirith, and whom the King has hired to teach his language to any who wish to learn it. Another tutor teaches both boys how to craft a sentence, both in speech and in writing.

As for history, the archives of Gondor are full of scrolls, and Elboron spends many hours poring through them. But his favorite part of learning history are the days when the Queen serves as their tutor.

"If you are going to serve Gondor one day," the Queen tells them, "as you both will, one day, in your own rights, and eventually in your fathers' steads, you must know all about the world you live in. Not just Middle-earth as it is now, but all of Arda, and its history."

She spins stories of lamps and seas, of war and music, of Men, Elves, and other beings; and Elboron swears to himself that he will serve this land—in all the beauty and ugliness that he hears spoken of in these stories; but, he hopes, mostly the beauty—in such a way that one day he can be spoken of in a tale as well, alongside Beren and Elros and Elendil and so many other great Men who have come before.

* * *

Elboron never has formal lessons with King Elessar, but he learns much from him nonetheless. Once a week, he sits on one of the stone benches in the throne room next to Eldarion, and watches as the King speaks words of justice and yet of conciliation to foreign diplomats who have come to treat with Gondor. He watches the King pass judgment on criminals, and tries to understand how he is able to be so just and yet so merciful. No wonder everyone in Gondor loves him. Even those who have been condemned by the King know that he could act no differently than he has done in passing judgment upon them.

One week, the King asks Eldarion to step forward and pronounce sentence upon a swineherd accused of stealing one of the animals to give to his sister-son. Eldarion frowns in concentration—with sympathy, Elboron finds himself thinking back over every last piece of evidence that was presented, now paying it three times as much attention as he had before—and then Eldarion steps forward to stand at the base of the steps, next to the Steward's chair (empty because Papa is back at home in Ithilien), and pronounces his verdict.

When he is done, the King looks his son in the eye and nods firmly. Elboron still has trouble getting a read on the King, but he doesn't look displeased at least. 

The next case is a bookkeeper accused of stealing money from his employer. Both men speak at length, and so do their witnesses. Elboron wonders if the King will ask Eldarion to give the verdict again, but when the King turns once more to the bench where they are seated, it is Elboron whose eyes he meets in a firm clear gaze, and Elboron whose name he calls.

Walking those twenty steps from the side of the room to the foot of the stairs next to Papa's chair is one of the most frightening things Elboron's ever done. _If you're going to be Steward one day..._ he tells himself, and presses his palms flat to his sides so nobody can see the sweat beading on them. He takes a deep breath, thinks over the evidence one last time to make sure he hasn't missed anything, and raises his voice to be heard throughout the hall. "Because there are many other ways that the money could have gone missing other than being taken by Gwaeren, I do not condemn Gwaeren for this crime. I do believe Gwaeren's actions were not in the best interests of his employer, Ferdil the straw merchant. I charge Gwaeren to use honesty in all his future dealings, and I further charge Gwaeren never again to find himself before this court for the same crime, or he will be treated with more suspicion. I charge Ferdil to release Gwaeren from his employment and hire another bookkeeper, and I further charge Ferdil to find a new place to keep his strongbox." He bows, and hurries back to the bench next to Eldarion. 

He's in such a hurry to get out from under all those staring eyes that he forgets to look to see if the King nodded, as he had done with Eldarion. But when he sits down, the King is looking at him with those same strong clear eyes, and he's smiling. They'll talk about these cases at length later, over dinner, but for now, Elboron feels confident that he has rendered justice as well as could be done in this case.

* * *

Now that he is living in Minas Tirith, Elboron goes to Rath Dínen sometimes.

Nobody there says anything to him. There is no one to speak of what he'll need to do to be Steward; none to wonder if he'll be worthy of that title.

None but himself. Elboron sits there in the dark, surrounded by the tombs of his forefathers and of the Kings of old, and he wonders. Oh, he wonders. Will he be worthy? Should he have judged Gwaeren more harshly? Has he studied enough history, learned enough languages, seen enough of Middle-earth? Does he have long enough ahead of him to learn more? The more he learns, the more he sees how much he will need to learn to take his father's place of service to the King.

As the years go on, Elboron's life fills with more and more duties, and he no longer comes to visit the tombs of Rath Dínen. Until one day.

Elboron is nearly eighty, and if anything, he thought it would happen sooner. But having known all his life that this day was coming doesn't make it any easier to bear. He follows his father's casket down the Silent Street and misses the days when he was small enough to sit in his lap and read together from a weathered scroll. But he feels none of the dislike for the duty that he had felt at three, and he feels none of the insecurity that he had felt when he came here as a young man. His loved ones have prepared him for this task as well as they could, and as challenging as the duties ahead of him are, he knows he is capable.

Elessar says a few words, some last thanks to Faramir for his faithful service, and the assembly listens while a bard sings the Lay of Osgiliath. As the last notes fade away, everyone stands silent for a moment, and then they file out of the crypt. Elboron and Elessar are the last to leave, but finally they turn away as well: and the Steward of Gondor follows his King out into the sunlight.


End file.
